Field
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to virtual keyboard input and more particularly relates to indicating a word length using an input device.
Description of the Related Art
Virtual keyboards are present in many information handling devices and are generally interacted with by an input device, e.g., a mouse, a track pad, a stylus, etc. For example, devices that provide touch-enabled displays, such as smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc., often include a virtual keyboard that a user may interact with to enter characters, similar to a physical keyboard. However, instead of pressing physical keys on a keyboard, the user taps the keys displayed on the touch-enabled display with a stylus, finger, etc., or with a cursor controlled by a mouse, track pad, etc. This may be convenient for mobile devices that do not provide a physical keyboard. However, entering characters on a virtual keyboard may be slow and tedious, especially while holding a device in both hands, which may only allow characters to be entered using one or two fingers.
In certain instances, a user may switch to a new virtual keyboard or install a new virtual keyboard on their device, but this often requires changing devices or modifying an existing device. Moreover, some custom virtual keyboards require every character in a word to be typed, which may be slow and cumbersome, especially when entering longer words. While some virtual keyboards may provide type-ahead functionality, where possible words may be presented based on the characters that have been entered, these methods may be inefficient where the language includes a large vocabulary or many different combinations of words.